School head accepts Amrozi's guilt

The head of the Islamic boarding school where confessed Bali bomber Amrozi used to pray says he is now certain Amrozi did, in fact, help with the attack that killed nearly 200 people.

"I believe it because of the evidence," said Muhammed Zakaria, who has just returned to his home town of Tenggulun after being released from police custody in Denpasar.

Meanwhile, detectives from Bali were yesterday heading back to Tenggulun to conduct more raids for evidence.

During his three days in detention in Denpasar, where he was questioned about links between his Al Islam school and the bombing, Mr Zakaria said that while he was on his way from his cell to the bathroom he overhead Amrozi confess to the bombing .

In two minutes while he watched Amrozi, he says he heard him say only one sentence to investigators: "I admitted I collected the materials."

He said Amrozi looked well and "fat". He wanted to speak to him and was promised he would be able to so by the head of the investigation, General I Made Mangku, but he was released without talking to him.

Mr Zakaria insisted Amrozi had acted alone, without help from the school, which is suspected of being a place where some of the bombing preparations were made.

He conceded that some of Amrozi's brothers could have been involved, including Ali Imron and stepbrother Ali Fauzi, who were teachers at his school.

"If it's true, it's their own business," he said of the brothers, who are now on the run.

He had no objection to a series of police raids at his school this week but said police wrongly believed there were links between the bombing and his school. He said evidence seized by police, including large-diameter plastic pipe, army boots and videos, did not link the school with the bombing.

A section of pipe found at the school is the same size as pipe unearthed earlier this week by police. In it were found five rifles, including two M16 automatics, and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

"We have a lot of water here and we need big pipes," Mr Zakaria said when asked to explain why such large-diameter pipe was at the school.

In the week since Mr Zakaria and others were detained, his school students and others in the community now accept the police version of events, naming Amrozi as the field coordinator of the Bali attacks, more readily.

Police are staying in the tiny town and watching the community. Many of its members are spending their days around the Al Islam boarding school, as police and media make regular visits.

Mr Zakaria said students now agreed with him that Amrozi was guilty although he insisted that Amrozi or his brothers had never spoken about anti-American or anti-Western feelings.

He had no idea who taught Amrozi how to make bombs or who provided money for explosives, vehicles and other attacks.

But he denied it was Abu Bakar Bashir, the alleged spiritual leader of recently banned organisation Jemaah Islamiah.

"He's not involved, he cannot even walk properly," he said.

Like Bashir, Mr Zakaria refuses to condemn the Bali bombings.

"I regret it because there was no warnings," he said. But he would not use any word stronger than regret.

To the families of those survivors he would only say "be patient in these difficult times".

While he and those students still remaining in Tenggulun agreed that Amrozi was heavily involved in the bombing, they said his guilt was only based on existing civil law.

"Who says that means he's guilty?", said Mr Zakaria. "He's guilty based on existing law, but hopefully he's not guilty by God's law."